I don’t want to be a grown up in the age of preschoolers. In the words of Kris Kristofferson: Why me Lord? What have I ever done? Pick somebody else. Can’t I just waste away in Margaritaville looking for my lost shaker of salt?
I've decided I wouldn’t want to be Moses for all the money in the world. I can certainly understand his hesitancy to agree to do God's call. Please pick somebody else. I mean, he had a sweet deal going in Midian. Sure it was a step down from being Pharaoh’s grandson but still; he married into a good family, had a good wife, kids and an extraordinarily wise father in law. All he had to do was tend sheep. No people management skills required. No people management aggravation required. No excessive responsibility required. Forty years of minimal aggravation and then God came along and messed the whole thing up.
In almost no time at all he goes from the good life tending rather brainless sheep to a living nightmare tending close to 5 million brainless, heartless, faithless people. His success rate with them was minimal at best. Their unbelief forced him to walk in a large circle around a mountain for forty years. Most of the 5 million died in the wilderness because the Lord was not pleased with them. Of the original generation to leave Egypt only two men and perhaps their wives even crossed into the Promised Land. That would not please the church growth people at all. The stress of dealing with these people caused Moses to lose his cool so badly that God refused to let HIM go into the promise land. He was only allowed to take a little peek at it from on top of the mountain right before he died.
Forty years of being the Pharaoh’s grandson, forty years of being a family man, and then forty years of hell on earth working with a bunch of faithless whiners in the service of Ywhw God of the universe. All I can say is that the retirement benefits better be really, really good.
Yes, my faith gets stretched very thin sometimes. Like Jeremiah I cry out:
Righteous are You, O LORD, that I would plead my case with You; Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease? You have planted them, they have also taken root; They grow, they have even produced fruit. You are near to their lips But far from their heart. But You know me, O LORD; You see me; And You examine my heart’s attitude toward You. Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter and set them apart for a day of carnage! How long is the land to mourn and the vegetation of the countryside to wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it, Animals and birds have been snatched away, because men have said, “He will not see our latter ending.”
I know the feeling. Oh, by the way he was praying all of those things about the church; they were the wicked he was concerned with. I don’t know of an instance of anyone ever repenting through Jeremiah’s ministry. It seems tradition tells us that his congregation either stoned him to death or put him in a log and sawed him in two in Egypt after all of the things he said came to pass.
All that said, I’m not going anywhere. I’ve run too long and too far to quit the race now.
I am reminded of Psalm 139. Where can I go from your Spirit oh Lord? For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.
These days that I live are my days; created especially for me. This is the day that Ywhw has made let me rejoice and be glad. The question remains: How?
Grace and Peace to you in the midst of your custom made day,
Brad
No comments:
Post a Comment